RicketyCricket
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Taron
We love theme parks around Halloween but the UK line up didn't look particularly appealing this year, so we decided to go abroad. Hadn't initially considered Europa Park as I'd already visited earlier in the year, but after weighing up a few options it was a no brainer! Flights were just £35 return each, similar to what I paid back in June.
Friday - As usual with this route, the flight was a doddle and took just under an hour. Luckily I've got a strong stomach as a girl on my row spent the whole flight projectile vomiting into a bin bag. We got the bus to Rastatt where we stayed in the first of two B&B Hotels. These seem to be popping up everywhere at the moment and they're great value, somewhere between a Premier Inn and Travelodge standard.
Saturday - We got the train down to Freiburg, a city I've always wanted to visit but never found the time to do so. We had Rulantica evening tickets booked which gave us plenty of time to explore for the day. Freiburg really is top notch, fairy tale cobbled streets with streams running through them, surrounded by the Black Forest. We done a lap of the old town, had a Tarte Flambée/Flammkuchen and a few beers at some different bars before getting the train to Ringsheim.
We checked into our guest house in Rust, and arrived at Rulantica just after 5pm. I've been to Europa a fair few times since Rulantica has been open, but had always avoided it. My past experience with waterparks is a day spent surrounded by really annoying children, and hours of queueing up narrow staircases carrying a rubber ring.
Fortunately, Rulantica massively exceeded expectations. The plan was to doss around the swim up bar for a couple of hours whilst the slide queues quieten down in the evening. The wristband system works a little *too* well, as it feels like you can drink multiple pints of Erdinger without spending any money. The warmth of the water also seems to make you extra thirsty. The time we spent in the outdoor pool/bar area was absolutely brilliant and probably the highlight of the whole trip. If only the had a Snorri DJ animatronic like the one in Olga's Cantina.
I have no idea what any of the slides are called tbh. I'd recommend studying this in advance as more often than not we had no idea what attraction was awaiting us at the top of the stairs. I done the drop floor one first to get it out of the way and it was really good, amazing how much speed you pick up on that. The rapids are up here somewhere too and they were great fun. We done those about 6 times in total as there was never a queue.
Other notable slides were the face first racing mat thingy, where I clocked an impressive time due to a big run up, and being a bit of a fatty. The half pipe one was fantastic too and I got some nice airtime. The staff were great on this, spinning us round and splashing us before pushing our raft into the abyss.
I also did a couple of the outdoor slides on the big dragon headed splash zone area. Not complaining but I'm surprised it was open late because it was absolutely freezing cold. Left my beer at the pool and sprinted over there, whizzed around what I could for 5 minutes and retreated back to the warmth.
The lazy river was ok, nice themeing but I'm not a fan of having to sit in the tube. I was a bit too aggressive whilst initially getting on this and flipped over backwards into the water. Much to the hilarity of several Germans.
We absolutely loved Rulantica and I will 100% add this on to every future Europa Park visit. Despite being a Saturday evening at one of the busiest times of the year, we found the crowd levels absolutely fine and not chaotic at all. They really need to sort out the flooring though as it's incredibly slippery in places. I'd imagine there are a lot of injuries here and I was lucky to stay upright on multiple occasions.
Sunday - We awoke surprisingly hungover but got to Europa Park bang on 9am. Won't go into the full day but needless to say it was fantastic. Had my best ever result with Virtual Queue and got them for Voltron twice.
I was blown away by Voltron on my last visit but every ride was rattly, with one being plain terrible. Not usually an issue for me but when a ride is this long and intense, it's not ideal. This time was the complete opposite and every ride was near perfect. All things considered - themeing, ride, queue etc, Voltron is the best coaster in the world and it's not even close. The Tesla Coils in the queue were going off regularly and it's simply the coolest thing I've ever seen in a theme park. I love how obnoxiously loud it is. The coaster itself is a non stop assault of airtime and aggression. We managed a night ride too and the ride looks stunning in the dark.
It was a busy day and the park stayed open until 7.30pm. Despite the crowds we got on everything we wanted to and spent our day eating and drinking around the park at a leisurely pace. Silver Star was running very well with plenty of airtime, still one of my favourite B&M Hypers. Arthur is still one of my favourite rides in the world. Wodan was spectacular as ever.
We were exhausted by the time Traumatica came around and we got there just before 8pm. Overall vibe is it feels like a middle ground between HHN and Fright Nights. Impressive facades on all the mazes and plenty going on with actors roaming the pathways all night.
We started with Unknown which was probably the highlight of the event. It's one of the more interactive mazes out there and features some incredible alien animatronics, including a scene where one of the actors is grabbed by some tentacles and yanked into darkness. And we only waited 5 minutes for it.
The Hill was advertising a 5 minute wait but this was miles off and we ended up waiting an hour for it. This was a really long maze with decent theming but not enough actors. We then waited 20 minutes for Cinema Macabre which was very good, if a little short. Possibly the best themed of all the mazes we went through.
Next up was the hilariously weird The Fallen VR, based in the Kasandra Madhouse. This is an absolute must do and it's included in your admission price. To summarise: you're a fetus in a womb, fired out of a vagina into the world, murder someone, and go to hell. 10/10 stuff.
We had a ride on Matterhorn Blitz and then waited 20 minutes for Murderdome. I assumed this was another standard maze but it turned out to be a Lazer quest game where you shoot zombie actors. This was really good fun and a nice break from the usual scare mazes, would have done this again if we had time.
We finished the evening on Tarot House which was fine, minimal scares but good themeing throughout.
Traumatica was great but I can imagine it being hellish on a really busy night as the queues move so slowly. I'd definitely do it again if I were at Europa Park around this time but wouldn't go out of my way for it.
Monday - We arrived at Europa Park a bit later this time as we had done everything we wanted to the previous day. The main goal was to tick off all the snacks we'd missed the previous day, including a delicious Flammkuchen Bagel for breakfast. We had more Virtual Queue luck with Voltron and secured three more slots, plus a couple more rides in the main queue which floated around 45 minutes for most of the day.
Stayed up until the 6.30pm park close, joining the Voltron queue just in time to get a front row sunset ride to round off the trip.
Friday - As usual with this route, the flight was a doddle and took just under an hour. Luckily I've got a strong stomach as a girl on my row spent the whole flight projectile vomiting into a bin bag. We got the bus to Rastatt where we stayed in the first of two B&B Hotels. These seem to be popping up everywhere at the moment and they're great value, somewhere between a Premier Inn and Travelodge standard.
Saturday - We got the train down to Freiburg, a city I've always wanted to visit but never found the time to do so. We had Rulantica evening tickets booked which gave us plenty of time to explore for the day. Freiburg really is top notch, fairy tale cobbled streets with streams running through them, surrounded by the Black Forest. We done a lap of the old town, had a Tarte Flambée/Flammkuchen and a few beers at some different bars before getting the train to Ringsheim.
We checked into our guest house in Rust, and arrived at Rulantica just after 5pm. I've been to Europa a fair few times since Rulantica has been open, but had always avoided it. My past experience with waterparks is a day spent surrounded by really annoying children, and hours of queueing up narrow staircases carrying a rubber ring.
Fortunately, Rulantica massively exceeded expectations. The plan was to doss around the swim up bar for a couple of hours whilst the slide queues quieten down in the evening. The wristband system works a little *too* well, as it feels like you can drink multiple pints of Erdinger without spending any money. The warmth of the water also seems to make you extra thirsty. The time we spent in the outdoor pool/bar area was absolutely brilliant and probably the highlight of the whole trip. If only the had a Snorri DJ animatronic like the one in Olga's Cantina.
I have no idea what any of the slides are called tbh. I'd recommend studying this in advance as more often than not we had no idea what attraction was awaiting us at the top of the stairs. I done the drop floor one first to get it out of the way and it was really good, amazing how much speed you pick up on that. The rapids are up here somewhere too and they were great fun. We done those about 6 times in total as there was never a queue.
Other notable slides were the face first racing mat thingy, where I clocked an impressive time due to a big run up, and being a bit of a fatty. The half pipe one was fantastic too and I got some nice airtime. The staff were great on this, spinning us round and splashing us before pushing our raft into the abyss.
I also did a couple of the outdoor slides on the big dragon headed splash zone area. Not complaining but I'm surprised it was open late because it was absolutely freezing cold. Left my beer at the pool and sprinted over there, whizzed around what I could for 5 minutes and retreated back to the warmth.
The lazy river was ok, nice themeing but I'm not a fan of having to sit in the tube. I was a bit too aggressive whilst initially getting on this and flipped over backwards into the water. Much to the hilarity of several Germans.
We absolutely loved Rulantica and I will 100% add this on to every future Europa Park visit. Despite being a Saturday evening at one of the busiest times of the year, we found the crowd levels absolutely fine and not chaotic at all. They really need to sort out the flooring though as it's incredibly slippery in places. I'd imagine there are a lot of injuries here and I was lucky to stay upright on multiple occasions.
Sunday - We awoke surprisingly hungover but got to Europa Park bang on 9am. Won't go into the full day but needless to say it was fantastic. Had my best ever result with Virtual Queue and got them for Voltron twice.
I was blown away by Voltron on my last visit but every ride was rattly, with one being plain terrible. Not usually an issue for me but when a ride is this long and intense, it's not ideal. This time was the complete opposite and every ride was near perfect. All things considered - themeing, ride, queue etc, Voltron is the best coaster in the world and it's not even close. The Tesla Coils in the queue were going off regularly and it's simply the coolest thing I've ever seen in a theme park. I love how obnoxiously loud it is. The coaster itself is a non stop assault of airtime and aggression. We managed a night ride too and the ride looks stunning in the dark.
It was a busy day and the park stayed open until 7.30pm. Despite the crowds we got on everything we wanted to and spent our day eating and drinking around the park at a leisurely pace. Silver Star was running very well with plenty of airtime, still one of my favourite B&M Hypers. Arthur is still one of my favourite rides in the world. Wodan was spectacular as ever.
We were exhausted by the time Traumatica came around and we got there just before 8pm. Overall vibe is it feels like a middle ground between HHN and Fright Nights. Impressive facades on all the mazes and plenty going on with actors roaming the pathways all night.
We started with Unknown which was probably the highlight of the event. It's one of the more interactive mazes out there and features some incredible alien animatronics, including a scene where one of the actors is grabbed by some tentacles and yanked into darkness. And we only waited 5 minutes for it.
The Hill was advertising a 5 minute wait but this was miles off and we ended up waiting an hour for it. This was a really long maze with decent theming but not enough actors. We then waited 20 minutes for Cinema Macabre which was very good, if a little short. Possibly the best themed of all the mazes we went through.
Next up was the hilariously weird The Fallen VR, based in the Kasandra Madhouse. This is an absolute must do and it's included in your admission price. To summarise: you're a fetus in a womb, fired out of a vagina into the world, murder someone, and go to hell. 10/10 stuff.
We had a ride on Matterhorn Blitz and then waited 20 minutes for Murderdome. I assumed this was another standard maze but it turned out to be a Lazer quest game where you shoot zombie actors. This was really good fun and a nice break from the usual scare mazes, would have done this again if we had time.
We finished the evening on Tarot House which was fine, minimal scares but good themeing throughout.
Traumatica was great but I can imagine it being hellish on a really busy night as the queues move so slowly. I'd definitely do it again if I were at Europa Park around this time but wouldn't go out of my way for it.
Monday - We arrived at Europa Park a bit later this time as we had done everything we wanted to the previous day. The main goal was to tick off all the snacks we'd missed the previous day, including a delicious Flammkuchen Bagel for breakfast. We had more Virtual Queue luck with Voltron and secured three more slots, plus a couple more rides in the main queue which floated around 45 minutes for most of the day.
Stayed up until the 6.30pm park close, joining the Voltron queue just in time to get a front row sunset ride to round off the trip.
